I did not know what "Nabe" (pronounced Nah-bay) was until I visited
Ichiriki for the first time. Ever since then, I have become a big fan of
Nabe. Nabe is where you cook your ingredients in a flavored broth (not
to be confused with shabu shabu, where you cook your ingredients in
boiling water and then dip the cooked food in a flavored sauce).
Ichiriki offers both Shabu Shabu and Nabe, but make no mistake, you want
to come here for the Nabe, and nothing else.
The
nice thing about Ichiriki is that they have these nabe pots with a
divider down the middle, so that you can share a burner (but not the
broth) with the person sitting across from you. Pictured below is the
Ichiriki (shoyu) broth on the top, and miso broth on the bottom.
Half
of the restaurant consists of regular tables, and the other half of the
restaurant consists of a tatami room, but unlike traditional tatami
rooms, there is a hole in the ground so that while you're sitting on the
ground, you don't have to sit indian-style (you sit as though you're
sitting on a chair).
Pictured
below are the ingredients for the Ichiriki Nabe: Tsukune (a combo of
chicken and pork that you scoop into small round balls), tofu, won bok,
bok choy, enoki mushrooms, green onions, and your choice of chicken,
beef, or pork slices.
If
you go during lunch, you can add udon or ramen noodles (pictured) for a
couple of bucks. At dinner time, it's included with your meal. Just
keep this in mind because they don't ask you which noodles you want
until you're almost done with your meal. We learned this the hard way at
our first visit because after we stuffed ourselves with the food,
broth, and rice, we barely had enough room for the noodles.
Here's what it looks like once all of your ingredients are added to the pot.
For
dessert (if you have enough room), we like the strawberry shave ice
with green tea ice cream. It may sound odd, but it actually tastes good.
It comes with condensed milk and mochi balls. You can also order just
regular strawberry shaved ice with vanilla ice cream or green tea shaved
ice with green tea ice cream.
Ichiriki
501 Piikoi Street
(808) 589-2299
Reservations Recommended
Free parking in the back of the building (enter from Kona Street)
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